Driver in high-speed, rollover crash now faces murder charge
SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah — Murder charges were filed in Utah against a man accused of stealing a vehicle in a high-speed, multi-county police chase that ended in a fatal rollover crash.
First degree felony murder was filed in against Charles Dwight Caster, 22, for a crash that killed his passenger and sent him to a hospital in critical condition, according to court documents.
Caster is accused of stealing a vehicle in Wasatch County and then driving at speeds of up to 103 miles per hour while trying to elude police pursuit. Court documents stated that Carter fled to Summit County as he was being pursued by police.
According to the documents, accident reconstruction and dashboard cameras, as well as body camera from viewing officers led investigators to the charges. The Utah Highway Patrol deployed roadway spikes to try to stop Caster who did not stop. The Summit County Sheriff’s Office later deployed spikes and Caster swerved to the right shoulder to avoid them, then swerved back into a lane, overcorrected and then swerved to the right, losing control.
“The suspect vehicle went off the roadway and rolled several times,” the document states. “Both occupants were ejected. At the time of the crash the defendant was traveling at least between 92 and 103 miles-per-hour.”
Caster is charged with the passenger’s murder.
U.S. Route 40 was under construction at the time of the chase and the road narrowed from two lanes to one near where Caster lost control, police said. In addition to murder, Caster was charged with driving a stolen motor vehicle with a tailer and failure to respond to an officer’s signal to stop.
Documents state that witnesses saw the suspect vehicle driving fast on U.S. 40 and passing other vehicles on the shoulder, narrowly missing nemerous other vehicles as he fled from police until the crash as he approached an overpass.
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